Kalispell-Eureka, MT: Now THIS is Montana!

June 22, 2016

We are at the Super 8. Breakfast is included. For being a chain motel, they aren't very consistent with breakfast. Today there wasn't eggs or sausage. Who would think I'd ever be complaining about microwave eggs not being available? I had two packages of oatmeal and the pint of milk I had in the room. I supplemented with a few bites of leftover Mexican food. Jacinto, for being very willing to eat green chicken and three day old left overs that haven't been refrigerated, draws the line at microwave eggs and sausage. He refuses to eat the breakfast here. Go figure.

7:12 departure to partially cloudy skies. Oren and I were very hopeful to see some blue sky. Oren had on his customary two shirts plus jacket. I had on my customary one shirt. You can tell we live in different climates! It was 48 degrees at the start. 84 degrees at the finish.

We have a travel size toothpaste (two actually). I bought a 4 oz sunscreen for the Taos tour, thinking it would be perfect for one week. It has lasted me all that week, plus four days of this trip. Pretty good. Now I have a full 16 oz bottle that I've been carrying because I didn't expect the 4 oz to last this long. Laugh's on me, eh? Here I am being such a weight weenie about everything else and I've been carrying that 16 oz sunscreen that I haven't even opened!

Directions were somewhat detailed today to get around Kalispell and stay away from the Whitefish traffic. We were hopeful that today would be much better, traffic wise. Yesterday was one of the most stressful I've had in years for riding close to traffic. It rivaled the day Jacinto and I got stuck in 4th of July traffic in Idaho with people coming home towing boats, RV's. etc. I have noticed here that almost all semis are pulling double trailers.

I am trying out ridewithgps's RIDE feature. If you make a route, download to your phone, and then click on RIDE - the lady (I named her Bertha) will give you turn by turn directions, plus you can see your exact location on the map. There's other handy information such as moving time, down time, etc. I used this yesterday and today and am quite hopeful it will solve my complete lack of sense of direction. I was thinking about that today. Why don't I have a sense of direction? Yesterday I was hopeful when we got on 93 for the last push into town, it would be a tailwind. Oren looked at me with complete surprise. NO! It wouldn't be a tailwind, we would have a full on headwind. If I turned left, I would go back to Polson. Sigh . . . True, no sense of direction. I decided rather than taking responsibility, I would blame it on growing up in Colorado. It's very easy to know which direction I am heading at home just by looking at what mountain is in front of me. I don't get lost in Colorado.

Oren vowed to eat every hour today. Right on the dot. One hour he stopped and got out a Lara Bar. We agreed traffic had been quite light and this was much nicer. We had taken 424 which turned into Farm to Market Road. This was 23 miles of cycling bliss. This is what I had come to Montana to ride. We had a few cars and the occasional semi, but mostly it was good riding.

Hour two - another Lara Bar stop. Oren had forgotten to charge his Dinotte light. I definitely noticed the difference in visibility. What I did notice from a distance was his flag waving in the wind. Oren has a new red, white, and blue flag this year on a very tall pole. I brought my flag, it makes me happy to look in my mirror and see it flapping. I've had several people tell me that having a flag slows me down. I don't care. Even Jacinto has a flag, a Colorado flag.

Today was a nice cycling day. We had big miles to reel in, but not much climbing. As much as I didn't like the traffic yesterday, riding through the Flathead Valley is a good way to break in your legs at the beginning of a tour. Tomorrow we will see what we are made of. We are only eight miles from the Canadian border crossing at Roosville. But why would we want to go to Canada already? We need to check out Yaak! Yaak has only been mentioned a few times here on CG, but always in terms that make me think I need to visit. Oren and Jacinto weren't so excited. 5,004 feet of climbing. Oh, boy! I'm ready to check out the forest service roads. We did a few last year on the Sierra Cascades route. They were enjoyable riding.

Back to today - Oren and I made hour three stop. What? No Lara Bar? Nope - he's not hungry. What about the eat every hour. "Not this hour." Okay . . . off we went.

We finished with delightful 424 and got back on 93. It had brand new pavement. Very smooth. But it also had a small shoulder. Perhaps 12". Heck - as busy as 93 has been, it's always had a shoulder. We no more than got rolling than we were passed by three double tankers in a row. I asked Oren if we could go back to the Farm to Market Road. Sigh. But it ended up being just fine. The new pavement didn't last long and when we got to the old pavement, the shoulder came back. Traffic was quite sparse, although when we did see a semi, it almost always had a double trailer. Logging trucks were typically singles and there weren't too many. This was good riding on 93.

We were ticking the miles away. It was our longest day of the trip so far. We still had to check out Tobacco Road, close to town. Oren wasn't inclined to go that direction, 93 was good enough. True, but I had told Jim I would ride it. Oren got in front of me, I didn't see if he made the turn onto Tobacco or not, but I went. Ooooh - a nice downhill to start. That's fun. This was a no center line kind of paved country road. 7-8 miles long. The first section was an open valley, that closed in and I was surrounded by pine trees most of the way. I saw perhaps five cars the entire road and one touring cyclist. We both said hello happily, but did not stop. I had a little up, then a BIG down into town. I wouldn't be so excited going the other direction. Oren was waiting for me at the intersection. He said 93 also had a big downhill into town - might as well ride the quiet road, Jim.

We agreed we needed snacks and food for the long day tomorrow into Yaak. We stopped at the grocery in town. They did not have any ready made sandwiches for Oren. They had Lara Bars on sale, half price, but only Apple Pie or Peanut Butter flavors and Oren doesn't like those. I spent far too much money. Common wisdom says not to shop when you are hungry. My mistake. I bought seven layer bean dip and chips. Salami and Tillamook Cheese. Yogurt. A big bag of cherries. A Braggs vinegar drink (I'd never seen those before, though I take Braggs vinegar at home) - $3.89 - it tastes like Kool Aide. A big disappointment for me. All of that came to $34. I hope Jacinto doesn't ask what that little shopping expedition cost. He would say I might as well have gone to a restaurant. So true.

Oren and I hung bags all over our bikes and headed out of town. We had another mile (uphill) to the Ksanaka Inn. We saw a big grocery store right across from the motel. Adjoining the motel is a Subway. Oh, the irony. We didn't need to haul all of those groceries up the hill, we could have walked over from the motel room.

BTW, Eureka looks like a happening little tourist town. They even have a movie theatre. My notes said to eat a Bubba Burger at the Cutting Board, it is billed as the best burger in America. The teenager who checked us in at the motel said the Cutting Board is out of business now. Darn - I wonder where the Bubba Burger is now?

We lucked out once more with a very roomy room. Microwave and fridge. Firm bed. Newly remodeled bathroom. It is all very good as long as I don't look at the carpet. Maybe that is next on the list.

I was sitting outside where the wifi connection is better loaded the photos for the journal and just finishing up. My next project was to call Jacinto. It was getting late enough that I was getting worried. I looked up and there he was! How about that? He had a good day with the exception of a close encounter with a double tanker. It had moved out to go around Jacinto and cut back in too soon, almost clipping him. Yesterday Jacinto had a variety of road find items. Today he didn't gather even one. He is showing such restraint!

Oren says there is a grill next door. That sounds like our dinner spot.

Oren exaggerates eat a bar. After bunking yesterday, he made sure to eat regularly today.

Typical scenery along the delightful Farm to Market Road.

This sign was at the turn for Mt Marston Lookout Tower. I wanted to stay there, but it's not open for the season until June 30th. There are a number of lookout towers available in Montana.

I haven't seen many old falling down buildings so far.

Blurry photo of a very old fire engine. That's what happens when I balance on one leg for a quick photo.

I almost didn't take the Tobacco Road because Highway 93 is just fine today. But I was supposed to be reporting to Jim Fitch, so off I went. Tobacco Road is a dandy! I saw 4-5 cars the entire length. Great scenery.

I was just thinking I should start worrying about Jacinto and here he is!

We are only eight miles from the Canadian border. But why would we want to hurry? We are taking a hard left and going to Idaho and Washington before crossing.

Today's ride: 68 miles (109 km)
Total: 182 miles (293 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0